I know that there is a growth inhibitor added by some growers to stems after cutting to slow the opening process in order that the bloom will hold for a number of days, but does this have an effect on the pollen? Has anyone had any success with this, or is the pollen just not viable?
John Moe
Whatever is happening, it is quite common for the pollen to not dry, release, or the male parts to begin to rot by the time the rose can be taken apart. I don’t know why, but I am guessing that storing them for so long, especially in chill, takes its toll. I don’t know much about the chemicals they use, however.
Mr Moe, John if I may call you by your first name.If the variety was under IP status, I believe there are a couple of things come into play. I am in Australia and recently bought some roses for our anniversary(not many at that time of year in OZ)the rose I purchased came 400kms from Sydney which came from the Latin Americas. So how long did it take to get to me. Not sure, does pollen travel, not sure., The other thing which might influence the pollen without any knowledge from myself is the travel time and sprays which might have been used for importation, but when I worked in a rose nursery here in Mudgee, my boss dipped the ends of our cut roses in R/up, just, incase as he had some proprietary roses. Not sure if the pollen would be affected.
David,
John is fine. I agree that these florist roses come from some distances. I’m sure that most of the ones we get here come from South America, most likely Ecuador. I know that any pollen that we could get would never be as viable as that we obtain from one of our own blooms, but often we see something very nice in some of the florist roses that would be nifty to mess with. But maybe it isn’t worth the time. Will see if anyone has had any success with it.
Regards,
John
Yes, that is why I posted these pics of Tiramisu and Coffee Break on HMF:
I absolutely fell in love with these two florist roses, but they wouldn’t shed even a dust of pollen.
Darn, I never thought to snag the pollen off this grafted rose from Ecuador.
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That almost looks like Piccadilly. Was the plant short and shiny for a HT?
It wasn’t Piccadilly, this was full and tight and the colors where brighter than the photo.
Neil
I only tried florists’ roses pollen once and had great success if you define success as producing seedlings. I think these cut flowers might have been raised in Ca., they were purchased at Costco, and they did produce a lot of pollen, very viable. This is a photo of a couple of the seedlings-they did turn out to be very mildew prone, and I eventually only kept one of all the offspring-it looks like a miniature Pope John Paul II, and blooms quite abundantly, and is a little bit mildew prone still. It is three yrs old and I have never taken a photo of it. Many of the offspring were lavender but I do not remember any fragrance, unlike so many of the lavenders. This was three yrs ago, so maybe florist rose treatments have changed. If I were to ever see this particular rose (Old Dutch), I would use it again and try it with different potential mates-I was struck by the attractive results.
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Hi John and Jackie,
Jackie, those are very pretty seedlings!
John, like Jackie, I have used pollen from cut flowers with success - I think that the ones that I tried were also from Costco! I ended up with only one rose that I kept - it was a mini with good form, but too few petals. That rose made a good seed parent and I used it for a couple of years. I still have some offspring from it, but that mini has since been discarded.
I am planning to do a few crosses this year also using florist roses. I guess that I had better stick with Costco!
Jackie & Jim,
Jackie - have always loved mauve, and yours have a very soft color - very nice!
I had heard a rumor that Costco has their own growing fields in Ecuador. I would suppose that there are import regulations from our USDA. I will try some this year - isn’t that what amateur hybridizing is all about? Give it a try - odds are 50/50 just like any cross we make - either it works or it doesn’t!
John
Neil, looking at the petals closer, theyre definitely not Piccadilly – youre right. Look at those veins! Very few roses have those that pronounced.